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Connection: Journey's End, RC Sherriff (1928)
Published in Ewan Jeffrey, David Jeffrey, Enhancing Compassion in End-of-Life Care Through Drama, 2021
Empathy involves the appreciation and acknowledgement of the suffering of others. The doctor needs to convey to the patient that they matter. An open consultation style, the use of silence and an ability to listen are essential for empathy. The doctor has to appreciate that to understand a patient’s experience requires sensitive questioning. Patients will often give doctors cues such as ‘I am worried that my wife won’t cope with the news’, to test whether the doctor is prepared to enter his emotional world and to feel their suffering without apprehension. Looking into the face of another’s suffering also compels the doctor to confront their own attitudes to death and dying.
The roles of the midwife
Published in Helen Baston, Midwifery, 2020
To be truly ‘with women’ midwives need to demonstrate compassion. There are various levels of engaging with women. We first need to have either asked an appropriate question or listened to a woman’s spontaneous narrative to hear what she is saying. On one level we might feel pity, for example, if a woman has had a previous difficult experience, which we can elevate to expressions of sympathy when we articulate our concern. Empathy involves seeing the situation from their perspective and sharing their emotions whilst compassion involves action and the desire to make things better and alleviate their suffering (Burton 2015).
From suffering to satisfaction
Published in David Bain, Michael Brady, Jennifer Corns, Philosophy of Suffering, 2019
Before examining the benefits of suffering, I first want to examine what indeed the term ‘suffering’ means psychologically. Although I will leave the concise definitional work to the philosophers, here I want to examine the psychological underpinnings of the experience of suffering. I also want to examine some of the drawbacks of taking a narrow perspective on what it means to suffer.
Experiences of an Equine-Assisted Therapy Intervention among Children and Adolescents with Mental Illness in Sweden - A Nursing Perspective
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2022
Kim Punzo, Matilda Skoglund, Ing-Marie Carlsson, Henrika Jormfeldt
It is not adequate to define health solely as an absence of illness, as health is an interactive process between the individual and the environment, and between different factors in the individual’s environment (Eriksson, 1997). Suffering is related to life as well as illness, and to its related treatment, and is often associated with physical and mental pain, and well-being is made possible by alleviating this suffering (Eriksson, 1992). Patients’ need for fresh air and sunshine was highlighted in Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory of Nursing (Nightingale, 1860). Katie Eriksson’s multidimensional health theory emphasizes an ontological understanding of health, where health is defined as a source of energy in life as well as a source of joy and desire, while human beings are seen as comprising a body and soul, and spirit and health is understood as a dynamic movement between dimensions of becoming, being, and doing (Bergbom et al., 2021). Learning in terms of integrating new knowledge; and personal development, supported by encouragement and motivation in caring relationships are closely associated with health and vitality (Eriksson, 1997). According to caritative caring theory, the core of caring is to tend, play, and learn in faith, hope, and love in a caring relationship, where suffering gives birth to life (Bergbom et al., 2021).
Mistaken Compassion: Tibetan Buddhist Perspectives on Neuroethics
Published in AJOB Neuroscience, 2022
For instance, one participant asked about the patient’s mental state at the time they were taking the drug (1). Another (3) emphasized the importance of the environment and other causal factors in influencing how we think, stating that they did not believe that the drug could be the only factor on which the patient’s mental state and stable identity depended. A third participant (4) offered four types of factors that Tibetan society considers in thinking about mental illness: not being able to control one’s own mind, a change in chemicals in the brain, environmental factors, and religious superstition, which includes myth and beliefs. This participant then offered four different kinds of advice based on the source of the mental illness: changing one’s awareness, perhaps by considering how other people live, or by practicing contentment or satisfaction, drugs or medicine to balance the chemicals, changing one’s surroundings, and prayers or puja (a puja is a worship ritual. The word comes from Sanskrit and is shared by Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism). Another participant (10) stated that mental suffering has two types: the first is from the person’s viewpoint of what is happening, and the second is when we do not practice love for other beings. To clarify the first, they stated that mental suffering can be caused by preconceptions, such that if, for example, we think we should not have to get sick, age, and die, then we will experience suffering alongside these events. However, if we see them as natural, then we will not necessarily suffer when we experience them.
The Role of Suffering in Relation to Suicide in Persons Experiencing Co-occurring Substance Use Disorders and Mental Health Conditions: A Brief Perspective
Published in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 2022
Nicole D. Hune, Thomas G. Kimball
Similarly, suffering involves a combination of personal thoughts, beliefs and emotions associated with existential agony. Frank (2001) described this type of suffering as “what remains concealed, impossible to reveal; it remains in darkness, eluding illumination” (p. 355). When people struggle with drugs and alcohol, this behavior is often concealed and accompanied by powerlessness and internal emotional distress in the presence of recovery. In co-occurring mental health conditions, some might experience emotional and mental suffering similarly. What is invisible and concealed in darkness is very difficult to reveal. In 12 step recovery, that which was in darkness is brought to light, often resulting in a spiritual awakening (Step 12) by restoring meaning and direction to one’s life.